Mountain Gorilla

So this is it.  If I had to pick the most satisfying photograph I have taken in the last 40 years this is the one.  Mainly because it was so damn hard to get!  Here’s the rub:  Start with a nine-hour flight to London, England.  Then overnight in London before a twelve-hour flight to Entebbe, Uganda.  Overnight in Entebbe, and then endure three days of four-wheel drive overland trucking on rough roads through Rwanda and Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo) en route to the extremely remote Virunga Mountain Range. All this traveling on unbelievably, bumpy, dusty and hidden roads by day, and camping on the sides of those potholed roads in the middle of nowhere by night.  That all led to four days spent at the bottom of a mosquito-infested mountain waiting for the exact right time to go up and find the Gorillas.  Then when the conditions were just right a seven-hour hike through the dense, tropical vegetation of the steep Virunga Mountains led me to this elusive primate.  There are only 650 Mountain Gorillas left in the entire world and they are not easy to find. 

Photo Tip: Don’t forget to take your lens cap off when you find one.

So do the math.  It took me more than nine days just to get close to this beauty - a 350 pound adult male Silverback Mountain Gorilla.  It had been a dream of mine for decades to photograph one, and when I came across this Gorilla I shot over 20 rolls of film.  As the shutter clicked on this particular photograph I knew I had the shot that I was after.  I knew it instantly and couldn’t wait to get back to Canada to get the film developed just to see this one shot.  It’s all about light, composition and of course gorilla facial expression (say cheese).   They all came together for me that day in the jungles of Africa in 1997.

page updated: 2007.07.04